Nazca & N.America

Old Labyrinths

Nazca & North America

The Nazcan civilization of about 500 CE in SouthWestern Peru constructed a number of labyrinthine figures (magical single path tools) on the Pampa Ingenio, an unbelievably dry flat desert. Many times, their colorful pottery imitated these enormous drawings as with this fish.

Nazca Illustrations: The spider is also a labyrinthine figure, and perhaps her spirit could be captured by walking this magical representation. Note the variant of the classical three circuit labyrinth.

While the picture to the left isn't a labyrinth, it is in Nazca, and I wanted to include it, as it is evidence of South Americans' interest in lines coming together at what are called "ray centers." Notice the lines in the Nazca fish above. These are reminiscent of the ley system in England where not all alignments carried the straight line yang energy called energy leys. Sig found that it was the specific lines that connected the ray centers that carried the energy leys.

The Native Americans of the SouthWest (O'odahm and Hopi) use a labyrinth that is essentially identical to the classical seven circuit labyrinth. This O'odahm example is called "The Man in the Maze."